On July 29, 2016, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder became the chairman of the board of the Russian state-controlled Nord Stream 2 company (a subsidiary of Gazprom), although it was not officially announced until October 5, 2016. The position accompanies his post as chairman of the shareholder committee for the project as a whole, which he has held since 2005. With his new position, Schröder took on an even greater role with the controversial project, which many Central and Eastern European states strongly oppose due to the potentially destabilizing geopolitical consequences. Nord Stream 2 would double Russia’s capacity to export natural gas directly to Germany through the Baltic Sea, increasing energy dependence on Russia.